Choice Cuts: July / August 2004

Highlight Tracks: "Big Business in Europe" and "Strathcona Slung"

For More Info: Visit http://www.delgados.co.uk or http://www.chemikal.co.uk

Artist: THE GRIS GRIS

Album: The Gris Gris

The Scoop: No-B.S. psychedelic trip-companion rock from the Bay Area. This isn't the soundtrack for your visits to strawberry fields, though; true to their name (Gris-Gris being a sort of super-voodoo), Greg Ashley's brainchild pokes its nose into some more malevolent corners. Beginning as a fuzzy, distorted, slow-burning meditation, opening track "Raygun" takes a sharp turn just before (appropriately) the 4:20 mark and the vocals pop into the forefront as the tempo shifts into a gallop. With an organ that is half-Doors and half-Halloween, "Everytime" pulls listeners deeper into the rabbit hole. Ashley is right at home on Birdman, where his brothers-in-psych-arms include The Warlocks and Modey Lemon. Vocally, he embraces reverb as readily-and nearly as effectively-as Jim James. The unpredictability and eclecticism is enhanced by the almost straightforward "Me queda um bejou," lush and tender. Open space and cacophony make up the natural habitat of The Gris Gris, though, and they sound as comfortable there as anyone who's been on the scene in a long while.

Highlight Tracks: "Raygun" and "Necessary Separation"

For More Info: Check out http://www.thebirdmangroup.com

Artist: HAYDEN

Album: Elk-Lake Serenade

The Scoop: Hayden Desser is one of the finest storytellers in music today. Almost a decade into a fruitful career, he shows no signs of selling out or polishing up his brand of achingly intimate and lo-fi arrangements. Even when he dresses up his lonesome baritone and acoustic guitar with a gentle burst of horns or strings, his songs still have the feel of a DIY'er holed up in a bedroom or basement with little beyond a four-track and a head full of ideas. Really the only negative thing to say about Hayden is that his studio albums have slightly decreased in power, and Elk-Lake Serenade suffers somewhat when compared to its predecessors (Everything I Long For and Skyscraper National Park). When compared to his peers, though, it stands strong. Who else writes a compassionate song about a grizzly bear killing an ex-girlfriend after her cowardly new boyfriend runs for the hills? And then titles it (brilliantly) "Killbear"? Other songs are populated by dead children, movie stars, lost loves and renewed loves. As our guide, Hayden is both a winsome Everyman and a woeful Eeyore. Elk-Lake Serenade is another fine chapter in his book.

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